While you may know the technical, dictionary definition, I’m beginning to learn that legalism (and being legalistic) is much slimier and more slippery. It shows up in odd places, unexpected and unwelcome. It slides into the nooks and crannies of my heart. It’s an expert con man, pretending to be my friend and convincing me to... Continue Reading

By the beginning of 1773, successive blows had left Cowper staggering. His brother died in 1770, followed by two of his cousins the following year. In 1772, neighbors’ whispers suggested that Cowper’s relationship with his landlady was something short of innocent. The grief and the slander soon gathered into clouds too dark for his sanity.... Continue Reading

Platt, who preaches for nearly six hours during his annual Secret Church events, made it through the entire book of Revelation and all 50 points in about an hour at the missions conference in Louisville, Kentucky. The points included 48 characteristics of Jesus and a pair of exhortations. Video of the sermon (and others from... Continue Reading

To look back and remember requires faith. It requires believing that God sovereignly determined everything you experienced this year. Such exercise of faith is easier to say than to do. In fact, knowing that God was behind everything that happened this last year is the kind of answer that raises other questions. For we don’t... Continue Reading

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the resident alien; I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:9-10).   I’m not a farmer. I’ve wondered... Continue Reading

There are probably only two kinds of people whose online habits aren’t at least challenged by phenomenons like online shaming: the people who stop reading essays like Helen’s because they don’t want them to be challenged, or the people for whom online shaming is not a problem but a bonus. Four years ago I would... Continue Reading

Evidently these verses have absolutely nothing to do with what constitutes a church. It has nothing to do with the minimum number of people required to be a church and nothing to do with whether you have a church based on the number of people at any given meeting. The context has everything to do... Continue Reading

The Huguenots continued to worship in secret – in private homes, forests, or caves. Trained preachers were a rarity, but there was an abundance of improvised preachers and self-appointed prophets. For some, the substance of the sermons or prophetic messages didn’t matter. They just wanted to hold on to their faith. A few others, especially young... Continue Reading

Abraham’s seed was physical. God promised that Abraham would be a father of many nations (Gen. 17:5). Nations arose from his offspring with Hagar and Keturah, but the seed of promise was Isaac, the son of Sarah. From Isaac came Jacob and then the nation of Israel. The development of this physical seed was essential to... Continue Reading

The Third Reich still raises questions that should be disturbing to all who are confident they’re so civilized they could never be part of such horror. Germany was culturally and technologically the most advanced nation in Europe in 1900; 33 years later Hitler was its chancellor, and neither the Third Reich nor the Holocaust could... Continue Reading